Mulligan eyes up new joint venture with Elan

Seamus Mulligan, the Irish pharma entrepreneur and former Elan executive, plans to form a new $90m (€68m) joint venture with the listed drug company.

Elan, which is resisting a hostile takeover by Royalty Pharma, proposes to transfer an early-stage drug known as ELND005 into a new company called Speranza Biopharma.

Mulligan, who last year sold Azur Pharma to Jazz Pharmaceuticals, will put up $20m in interest-free loans for Speranza and be its biggest shareholder with a 62% stake. Elan plans to invest $70m — $63m in equity and $7m in loans — and have 18% of the new company. The remainder will be held by company management.

The Speranza spin-out is one of four transactions proposed by Elan as it battles the Royalty bid, which